She’s become BFFs with A-listers like Nicole Richie and Mindy Kaling, but back in middle school, Zooey Deschanel was tormented by her peers. “Girls spit in my face,” Deschanel tells the February issue of Allure. “People were so mean to me. I’d cry every day.”

The New Girl actress — who attended high school with Jake Gyllenhaal and Kate Hudson — says not much changed during her freshman year at Northwestern University. “I went to Northwestern because I had gone to a really nontraditional high school. I was like, ‘It’d be cool to have a traditional college experience,’” Deschanel, 32, explains. “Then I was like, ‘Oh, but none of these people understand what’s cool about me. My specialness is not appreciated in this place.’”